Chelsea Durand / NYRA Photo

Buy Land and See sails home to victory in Awad

by Ryan Martin

ELMONT, N.Y. - Joseph Imbesi's Buy Land and See tracked the pace, made a move to the inside of a rival down the stretch and held off a late charge from Pixelate to score in his stakes debut in Saturday's $100,000 Awad over the Widener turf course.

Trained by Steve Klesaris, the Pennsylvania homebred arrived at the one mile outing for juveniles off of an 8 ½-length romp over the Parx turf in his second career start.

Buy Land and See, a gray or roan son of second crop sire Cairo Prince, settled in fourth under Irad Ortiz, Jr. while 18-1 longshot Noble Emotion broke sharply and went to the front from his inside post while recording an opening quarter-mile in 23.06 seconds just a half-length ahead of New York-bred maiden winner Get Smokin.

The pacesetter extended his lead to a length with the half-mile completed in 46.89 seconds and remained in command into the far turn, where Buy Land and See received his cue from Ortiz, Jr. and responded with a five-wide move.

At the top of the stretch, Buy Land and See loomed closer to the front to the inside of new leader Don Juan Kitten in rein to Kendrick Carmouche. In the final furlong, Buy Land and See moved past his rival and held off a late charging 35-1 Pixelate to win by a neck in a final time of 1:35.70. It was another 1 ½ lengths to Don Juan Kitten in third.

Completing the order of finish were Irish Mias, Talking, Tiesto, No Lime, Me and Mr. C, Noble Emotion and Get Smokin. Polar Bear Pete was scratched.

The win was a fourth stakes victory of the meet for Ortiz, Jr., three of which came on turf.

"I had horse at the quarter pole. Kendrick's horse had the momentum and my horse didn't kick right away," said Ortiz, Jr. "When I got three or four strides, he started to kick very fast and was running. I just kept riding and kept him straight. The whole way he was there for me. He's a nice horse."

Buy Land and See, who returned $8.70 for a $2 win ticket, enhanced his lifetime earnings to $110,800 in only his third career start while giving Cairo Prince his fifth black type stakes winner this year.

Klesaris was pleased with the effort and said the horse will be bound for Florida for the winter, where he will likely be slated for stakes action.

"We were concerned with the way he broke. We wanted him to settle because he was so rank last time in his first victory," said Klesaris, who boasts a record of 8-4-2-0 for the meet. "He was wide. Irad tried to get him to relax, and we accomplished the mission. He didn't really want to be on the lead and Irad rode him perfect. I've always thought a lot of this horse. He's really matured since he's arrived in April. With each race, he just continues to train well, and showed me today he's real. He's going to Florida and in a couple weeks we'll map out where we want to go."

The Awad pays homage to the Maryland-bred four-time Grade 1 winning millionaire whose triumphs at such caliber include the Manhattan at Belmont and Sword Dancer at Saratoga. He was owned by Ryehill Farm and trained by New York veteran conditioner David Donk.

Live racing resumes Sunday at Belmont Park for the final time this calendar year with a 12:20 pm. first post. The card is highlighted by the $100,000 Chelsey Flower, $100,000 Pumpkin Pie and $125,000 Zagora.